84 Bible Verses about Long Courtship

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Hebrews 10:26 ESV / 15 helpful votes

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Revelation 14:12 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV / 12 helpful votes

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Matthew 19:5 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Proverbs 18:22 ESV / 9 helpful votes

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 3:5-7 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Matthew 5:27-30 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Amos 3:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Ruth 3:9-13 ESV / 8 helpful votes

He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

Judges 14:7 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 8 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...

Titus 2:1-15 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. ...

Zechariah 14:1-21 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. ...

1 Chronicles 17:1-27 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.” But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in. For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. ...

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; ...

Acts 16:1-40 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. ...

Proverbs 31:6-7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Psalm 150:1-6 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! ...

Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. ...

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

Ephesians 6:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ...

2 Corinthians 1:12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

Romans 12:9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Malachi 3:10 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Song of Solomon 2:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

Proverbs 20:5-9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him! A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes. Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?

Proverbs 19:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Psalm 37:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Of David. Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!

Job 31:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?

1 Chronicles 17:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

Genesis 6:1-22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ...

1 Corinthians 11:1-34 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. ...

John 3:16-17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Ezekiel 48:1-35 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“These are the names of the tribes: Beginning at the northern extreme, beside the way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan (which is on the northern border of Damascus over against Hamath), and extending from the east side to the west, Dan, one portion. Adjoining the territory of Dan, from the east side to the west, Asher, one portion. Adjoining the territory of Asher, from the east side to the west, Naphtali, one portion. Adjoining the territory of Naphtali, from the east side to the west, Manasseh, one portion. Adjoining the territory of Manasseh, from the east side to the west, Ephraim, one portion. ...

Isaiah 33:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.

1 Kings 19:1-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” ...

Genesis 24:1-66 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” ...

Genesis 3:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

Revelation 13:1-18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. ...

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

2 Corinthians 1:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

1 Corinthians 14:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.

Revelation 13:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.

Revelation 11:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,

Hebrews 10:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

Titus 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

1 Thessalonians 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

That no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

Ephesians 5:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Galatians 5:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

2 Corinthians 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:

1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

1 Corinthians 7:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

1 Corinthians 6:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Acts 16:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

Zechariah 14:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Ezekiel 48:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Adjoining the territory of Dan, from the east side to the west, Asher, one portion.

Isaiah 33:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.

Proverbs 31:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink,

Psalm 150:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!

Psalm 150:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

Psalm 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

1 Kings 19:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

Genesis 6:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.

Genesis 3:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Genesis 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

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